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February 2, 2006 Sociology 0150 Notes by Earl Hylton
What’s the subjective experience of reading Durkheim?
Marx -Critical -Often makes analogies through argument, Rather than specific examples Technical Metaphors Abstract Engaged/political Specific interlocutor Polemic Philosophical
Durkheim
- Personal
- Apolitical
- Examples, first person, personal experience, everyday life
- Academic/disciplinary
- Concrete
- “Open Minded”
- Deals with possible exceptions and counter examples
- Easier to read without feeling defensive, sociological disciplinary sense
Marx Durkheim
Engaged yet technical Academic yet lots of
examples
philosophical Sociological in the
disciplinary sense
political apolitical
Big idea??? Of Durkheim’s Rules of Sociological Method-> There is a link between theory and method.
- What a “thing” is
- What a “social fact” is
- Reciprocity of “social forces” and “social agents” pg.
- Scientific method
- Concept of a social fact
Types of Epistomology-
- Standpoint
- objectivist
- subjectivist *Durkheim is an objectivist- You understand things from the outside and take an unbiased view on topic Objectivist Definition - You understand/know things from the outside, and take an unbiased view on the topic.
Sandra Harding/ 3 Elements embedded in how we do research.
- Epistemology- a theory of knowledge
- Method- technique for gathering and analyzing information
- Methodology- a choice of how to use methods/techniques ->->works out/ tells you how to get from an epistemology to a method
3 Points of Durkheim
- Domain of sociology (the social)
- Methodology of sociology (objectivity; treating facts as ‘things”)
- Logic and Argument of analysis
Social Fact Exist outside the consciousness of the individual.-->>>pg. Are invested with a coercive power
A “thing”---Æ We can’t get inside it or change it by thinking about them.
Empiricism} Facts cannot be discovered without hands on experiments. Social Facts Positivism
- Social facts definition- see pg. 117 Suigensis- of its own gender;unique in its characteristics Idea that can’t be consumed by a larger concept Can only explain social facts with social facts;not psychological for example
*Top of pg 116 Social Facts
- social “roles” -traditions
- law, morality, beliefs, customs, fashion
